British loudspeaker manufacturer PMC played a key part in ensuring that the US Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing got the 2015 GRAMMY Week celebrations off to a flying start.
PMC is a Silver Sponsor of the P&E Wing's annual party at The Village Studios in Los Angeles, an event that traditionally kicks off GRAMMY Week and regularly attracts over 500 industry VIPs.
All sponsors are given the opportunity to host a technical demonstration and in PMC's case this took the form of a joint presentation with Auro Technologies, which showcased its Auro-3D audio format. Five PMC twotwo.8 monitors, four twotwo.6 monitors and a twotwo.sub2 active subwoofer were positioned around The Village Studio's Studio A live room in an Auro 9.1 configuration to create the Auro-3D effect of an enveloping cocoon of sound. The flagship AV processor Auro-3D Mensa was on hand to create the best possible immersive sonic experience.
"It was an exceptionally well received demonstration," says PMC's US President of Sales and Marketing, Maurice Patist. "Many of the producers at the party are PMC users and have our loudspeakers in their own private facilities, so they were already aware of the audio accuracy and detail our products deliver. But the combination of PMC and Auro-3D really blew them away and even though there were other 3D sound demonstrations taking place that night, people kept coming back for another listen because they were so impressed."
Patist adds that PMC is delighted to be a long term supporter of the P&E Wing's GRAMMY Event, which it has now sponsored for seven of the eight years it has been running.
"It gives us a fantastic opportunity to showcase our technology to some of the most influential producers and engineers in the USA," he says. "As a result we have established a very strong network of PMC users, including producer Justin Hergett who was nominated for a GRAMMY for his work with Beyonce; engineer Dave Schiffman, who won a GRAMMY for his work with Vampire Weekend and artist/engineer David Miles Huber who has been nominated for a GRAMMY numerous times."
The US Recording Academy's Producers & Engineers Wing comprises more than 5,500 producers, engineers, remixers, manufacturers, technologists, and other related music recording industry professionals. Anyone who joins The Recording Academy in the category of producer or engineer automatically become a member of the P&E Wing.
As a national membership initiative of The Recording Academy, the Wing provides a vehicle to reach a specific constituency, to craft advocacy positions, and to better address the daily concerns of these individuals. This organized voice for the creative and technical recording community uses its nationwide network of experts to address critical issues affecting the art and craft of recorded music. Among these issues are: the development and adoption of new technologies; recommendations for best practices in recording, master delivery, archiving and preservation; and support for both music education and education in the recording arts.
This year's P&E wing party, which took place on February 3rd, saw three times GRAMMY winner Nile Rodgers honoured for his commitment to excellence and his ongoing support for the art and craft of recorded music. He joins an impressive list of past honorees, which includes Chris Blackwell, T Bone Burnett, Tom Dowd, Ahmet and Nesuhi Ertegun, Jimmy Iovine, Quincy Jones, Arif Mardin, Al Schmitt, Jerry Wexler, and Neil Young.